U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch is calling for a congressional hearing on Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks now that 28 pages of once top secret documents on the 2001 tragedy have finally been released.
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Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who led the charge to publish the documents, said the findings “point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia”, and Congressman Rick Nolan, who also pushed for the pages to be released, said they “confirm that much of the rhetoric preceding the USA attack on Iraq was terribly wrong”.
As for the now-infamous 28 pages, the information is a selection of a congressional inquiry dating back to 2002, which has been kept secret due to concerns that it could cause strained diplomatic relations between the US and Saudi Arabia surrounding the September 11 attacks, reported the New York Times.
“While in the United States, some of the September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the Saudi Government”, the newly disclassified document said. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals.
Saudi Arabia itself has urged the release of the chapter since 2002.
Some calling for the release of the report believed that the USA had been attempting to cover up Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the attacks.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday that the release of the 28-page chapter is “imminent”. The report found two of the 9/11 hijackers, al-Midhar and al-Hazmi, received financial assistance from a man named Omar Al-Bayoumi.
“It’s important to note that this section does not put forward vetted conclusions, but rather unverified leads”, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said in a statement.
The 28 pages released Friday details activities that took place mainly in San Diego, but there is also a strong tie to the hijackers and a Saudi family who was living in Sarasota and abruptly left their possessions behind and fled days before the attack.
Today, Congress released a mysterious classified document that reveals the links between 9/11 and a Saudi network that was allegedly aiding the hijackers.
Lynch co-sponsored a resolution calling for the release of the pages in 2013 and President Obama ordered a review of them earlier this year, before the House of Representatives Committee on Intelligence declassified them – with some redactions – yesterday.
“Congress has to stand up for the interests of the thousands of innocent Americans who lost loved ones on 9/11”, the “9/11 Families” organization said in a statement. The document alleges that at least two people who supported the hijackers were Saudi intelligence officers.
The document said, though, that the inquiry made “no final determinations as to the reliability or sufficiency of the information” from Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency sources, and that the information could allude to either terrorist involvement or more “legitimate and innocent” explanations for any Saudi connections to the attacks. “This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al-Qaida”.
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The US commission that investigated the 2001 attacks said in its 2004 report that it “found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior officials within the Saudi government funded al-Qaeda”. “What people should remember was that this was information that was found in the files of law enforcement and intelligence agencies” by lawmakers and their staff and was “information being referred for further investigation”. A fourth plane, which investigators believe was headed for the U.S. Capitol building, crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa., after passengers attempted to wrest control from the hijackers.
